How to deal with negative comments on your law blog?

Bay Area Plaintiff’s Lawyer, Mike Danko, publisher of the Aviation Law Monitor on the LexBog Network, recently asked on the LinkedIn Legal Blogging Group what to do with negative comments he was getting on his blog.

My policy has been to publish all relevant and reasonably civil comments, however negative, for the sake of allowing a real dialogue to develop. Lately, however, I’ve been getting so many negative comments that I wonder whether publishing them is counter productive.

Publish, or don’t? And if you publish, what’s the best way to handle them? Respond to them all? Or let them just hang out there?

This is a tough situation that I am sure many bloggers encounter.   Sometimes the Internet feels like the town forum and op ed pieces of old where we plaintiff’s lawyers were labeled the cause of so many wrongs – suing without merit, asking defendants and juries to pay unjust awards, and eliminating products and medical services from the market place. 

More often not this anti-plaintiff and anti-plaintiff’s lawyer sentiment was generated by manufacturers and insurers, which in turn fulled the media and the public for their own pecuniary gain. There was no soon-to-be injured or killed via negligence lobby or PR group out there to contest this anti-plaintiff spin. 

I see the the Internet has the great equalizer for lawyers like Danko and the victims he represents. You bring out the truth in a manner which reasonable people can empathize with. If not lawyers like Bill Marler in Food Safety and Bruce Stern on Brain Injuries, then who fights the good cause? Do we just roll over? Do we leave it to lawyers who roll over without fighting?

Taking pot shots in comments on the net is not easy. Nothing worthwhile is. I say take them, respond in kindness. If not for you, do it for for those injured and killed through the negligence and lack of care of others.

Danko responded in kind in the LinkedIn discussion thread.

Thanks Kevin. I think you’re right. This is more than just a blogger’s issue. It comes down to why we do our job and how we conduct ourselves while doing it. Feel free to use my question/blog or whatever as you’d like.

Spokane Attorney Stephen Graham responded along the same lines.

That is a lot of negativity out there, but I would definitely approve comments like those. they are a little nasty and personal but they are still on topic. I think a lot of lawyers would really appreciate that level of reader engagement. Search engines love all that content.

And LexisNexis Social Media Manager, Suzie Easter, much the same.

Open discourse is great as it causes us to become aware of alternative viewpoints. It’s like brainstorming. Keep all that aren’t inappropriate.

I understand that in cases, especially with larger law firm blogs and controversial subjects, that comments may get too hot to handle. But open dialogue, especially where the public can learn, can be a real positive.